This invention relates to apparatus for holding sheet material and retaining it in an aligned stack and is particularly concerned with a writing station of the hand-rest type for holding note paper or cards.
Note paper holders of the prior art may be generally classified as of two types: (1) single tray units which have a flat bottom and three or four vertically extending continuous sides or which have corner brackets at each of the four corners to retain the paper and (2) hand-rest units which in addition to a receptacle for holding the paper, have an adjacent surface on which the writer can rest his hand. Many hand-rest units also have means to stablize the paper.
Single tray units are inconvenient and impractical for writing on the top sheet of paper while it is still within the tray. Typically, the writer must first remove the sheet from the tray and place it on a writing surface stablizing the sheet with one hand and writing with the other. The most advantageous of the hand-rest units provide a paper receptacle in which the front and most of the two sides are open and the hand-rest surface is adjacent to and overlapping the front edge of the paper. The base of the paper receptacle extends forward and the hand-rest surface is hinged to the front edge of the base. This permits the rear edge of the hand-rest surface, which overlaps the paper, to press down on the top sheet of paper helping to retain it in place while it is being written on. The hand-rest also includes a vertically downward depending flange which helps hold all the sheets in the stack in alignment and further stablizes the top sheet while it is being written on.
While definitely an improvement over single tray units, presently known hand-rest units have a number of disadvantages and problems. Since the hand-rest surface must continue to move downward as the sheets in the stack are depleted in order to perform its function of holding the stack and of providing a hand-rest surface at about the same level as the top of the stock, the base of the unit must be fairly high to provide clearance for the guide flange as the hand-rest surface moves downward. This increases the size of the holder and also provides a sharp, relatively high step between the hand-rest surface and the desk top or other support on which it is placed which makes it awkward and uncomfortable for the writer. In addition, although the hinged hand-rest is the most convenient handle by which the unit can be picked up and moved, particularly in units designed for small sheets, if the unit is moved by picking it up by this hand-rest, the hand-rest surface will move upward, releasing pressure from the sheets in the stack and displacing the guide flange, permitting the sheets to slide out of place and become disarrayed.